3000ft 35mm canister?

[Max Field]

I have a friend with about 2800 feet of print film, a short film he'd wish to archive.

 

Currently it's just sitting in a box wrapped up. The biggest canisters I've found were 2000ft, does anyone know where to purchase 3000ft canisters if at all possible?

 

Or perhaps a different method of storage?

 

Thank you.

[David Mullen ASC]

Since projection reels are 2000', and cut negative rolls are 1000' though I think some will make a 2000' roll, how was he able to print and project a single 2800' 35mm roll? And did the lab splice it to that length?

 

I'm no a projectionist nor a lab person, but perhaps this movie was spliced by a projectionist in order to use a platter and could be unspliced so it can fit back into a 2000' can and a 1000' can?

[Max Field]

Here's the thing it's just a film he bought off eBay, he, nor no one he knows, has any clue of the production process. He doesn't even have the means to test the film. I will take what you said and report back to him, thanks.

[Simon Wyss]

There are no 3000-foot cans. You have cans for 2000, 1000, 400, 200, and 100 feet of heights for 70, 35, and 16mm film.

[Max Field]

Would projectionists get features in a series of 2000 foot cans and have to assemble the reels together? I have no experience in this at all.

[Aapo Lettinen]

Would projectionists get features in a series of 2000 foot cans and have to assemble the reels together? I have no experience in this at all.

yep and some older films may be even in 1000ft cans like some of the swedish dubbed disney films we projected when we ran a monthly cine event about 15 years ago. Normally it was two or three 2000ft reels for a feature film in aluminium transport cases or from 5 to 9 small 1000ft rolls (on core) in a wooden transport box Edited June 27, 2017 by aapo lettinen

[Phil Rhodes]

When I stopped doing it, it was plastic crates, but yes. 2000 feet per reel which you'd splice together, in our case onto much larger reels.

[Mark Dunn]

Until the 1970s features were run on two projectors with a changeover every 1000 or 2000'. Kinoton invented the platter in 1968. The entire feature could then be spliced together on a flat plate and run through a single projector. Or what Phil says, just put onto a bigger reel. What your friend has is a built-up print like that. If it goes for scanning the lab will be able to break it down into reel lengths they can handle.

Edited June 27, 2017 by Mark Dunn

[Aapo Lettinen]

yep and some older films may be even in 1000ft cans like some of the swedish dubbed disney films we projected when we ran a monthly cine event about 15 years ago. Normally it was two or three 2000ft reels for a feature film in aluminium transport cases or from 5 to 9 small 1000ft rolls (on core) in a wooden transport box

somehow I confused meters and feet again :O.

We had two or three 4000ft reels normally per feature film, the ocassional third one having only a little bit of film on it depending on the runtime of the movie. These were shipped directly to us by the finnish distributor and returned the same way. The swedish distributor normally had the wooden box method with every little film reel on separate roll on plastic or wooden core and had to be spliced all theway together to the projector reels and disassembled after the show when the finnish ones were already assembled on the 4000ft plastic projector reels when shipped to us. Smaller projectors including the old nitrate film ones use 2000ft reels. I think the larger than 2000ft reels were even illegal back then when the print stock was a fire hazard and everything was wrapped on asbestos to be even remotely safe to project :/

[Aapo Lettinen]

So there is larger than 2000ft reels which you can store the film on and project it but there is no specific film "cans" for larger than 2000ft rolls.

The large projector rolls always had either all aluminium or aluminium corners/edges+plastic sides -transport cases with handles and such where two big reels could be fitted side by side and the ocassional extra reel had a separate single reel box, otherwise similar but thinner. The courier company hated those dual reel boxes because they are very heavy and awkward to carry...

[Dirk DeJonghe]

I have a fair number of 3000ft/35mm cans if this can help, just pay the shipping charges.